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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



FLAX CULTURE: 

AN • OUTLINE • OF • THE • HISTORY • AND 
PRESENT • CONDITION • OF • THE • FLAX 
INDUSTRY • IN • THE • UNITED • STATES, • AND 
A • CONSIDERATION • OF • THE • INFLUENCE 
EXERTED • ON • IT • BY • LEGISLATION. 



/ 



EDMUND A. WHITMAN, A.M., 

OF THE BOSTON BAR. 
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

J. R. LEESON. 






•MY 25 ]8«P i} 




BOSTON : 
RAND AVERY COMPANY. 

1888. 



0^-U,J 



^:X>' 






Copyright, iSS8, by J. R. Lekson. 



RAND AVEKY COMPANY 
MADE THIS BOOK. 



PREFACE. 



This volume aims to be brief, readable, 
and pertinent to the point at issue ; name- 
ly, that a duty on imported flax is unneces- 
sary, and a hinderance to the development 
of the flax-ofrowine and linen-manufac- 
turinor industries ni the United States. 
The facts and figures upon which this 
study is based are taken almost entirely 
from publications of the United States 
Government, and the object has been to 
tell the story, so far as is possible, in the 
words of the government experts. Fre- 
quent references have been made for 
ready verification. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 7 

By J. R. Leeson. 

FLAX: ITS CULTURE AND USE IN THE 

UNITED STATES 17 

FLAX CULTURE AS INFLUENCED BY 

LEGISLATION 68 

APPENDIX 91 



FLAX CULTURE AND USE IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 



AN INTRODUCTION 

By J. R. LEESON. 



That " supply waits upon demand," Is 
so universally acknowledged as to have be- 
come a truism ; so trite, indeed, as to make 
iteration a tedious jarring of a worn-out 
string. There are, however, some among 
us who would seem to think that demand 
is created by supply. This is, practically, 
the position of those who advocate the 
retention of the duty on flax. They have 
endeavored to induce our farmers to pro- 
duce flax fibre before the demand of Amer- 
ican spinners is sufficiently extensive to 
warrant the necessary study and outlay 
involved. By limiting the home consump- 
tion of flax throuofh the enhancement of the 
price of the flax-spinners' raw material to 
the extent of the impost duty, the believers 



5 IXTRODUCTTON. 

m thiscart-before-the-horse method of pro- 
cedure would, to borrow the quaint phrase 
of Adam Smith, "diminish the number of 
those who are capable of paying for it, — 
surely a most unpromising expedient for 
encouraging the cultivation. It is like the 
policy which would promote agriculture by 
discourao-inof manufactures." 

Probably our agricultural friends may be 
safely left to decide for themselves what 
crops it will best pay them to cultivate ; 
they have shown their grasp of the situa- 
tion, no less than the fertility of the land, 
by a gross annual product of their farms of 
two or three thousand millions of dollars 
worth, leaving far behind every nation which 
gives statistics of its growth, and supplying 
us all with greater variety and abundance 
of food than was ever known in any country 
or any era. 

The advocates of a duty upon flax fail 
to perceive the littleness of the interest 
under review. What is this demand, for 
the supply whereof farmers are advised to 
make such elaborate preparation ? The 
value of flax imports may be taken as an 
approximate measure of actual consump- 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

tion, home-grown flax being of such in- 
significant amount as to be inappreciable. 
The farmer is asked to turn aside from the 
cultivation of hay, with an annual product 
of nearly three hundred million dollars ; 
potatoes, exceeding fifty million dol- 
lars ; or cotton, with three or four hundred 
million dollars worth : in order that he 
may supply two million dollars worth of 
flax! 

What is the inference that is permissible 
from these data, namely : the increase in 
the ofrowth of flax fibre in the United States 
from less than 5,000,000 pounds in i860 to 
over 27,000,000 pounds in 1870, and the 
subsequent decline to less than 2,000,000 
pounds in 1880? The rise and fall in 
supply having been exactly coincident with 
the shortness or abundance of cotton, 
and the consequent greater or less demand 
for a substitute therefor, it is fair to ascribe 
the increased or diminished supply of 
domestic flax to the varying vicissitudes 
incident to the raw cotton supply ; the 
inevitable conclusion is, that the effect of 
the duty on scutched and hackled flax upon 
domestic production is absolutely nil, and 



lO INTRODUCTION. 

that the statement of the competent wit- 
ness given on page 40 may be accepted as 
true, that " if there was $1000 per ton duty 
on flax, it would not make the slightest 
difference with farmers." 

Why should the American farmer devote 
years of preparation for the supply of such 
a limited requirement? He wisely scatters 
his flax-seed thinly, raises a seed crop with- 
out effort or special study, and markets the 
product readily at a profit. He has more 
sunlight, more heat, and less moisture in 
the air, than any flax-grower has in coun- 
tries where fibre chiefly is produced. He 
will do well to continue his self-appointed 
course, which takes into the account the 
meteorological conditions which surround 
him ; leaving the growth of fibre to those 
who have experience, cheap labor, and a 
humid atmosphere, to aid them. 

It might be inferred from the display of 
pyrotechnics with which we have been 
favored on this subject, that American 
farmers must grow flax for fibre that they 
may be entitled to a respectable status in 
this connection. As a matter of fact, 
showing the fallacy in this assumption, 



INTRODUCTION. 1 1 

the value of flax seed annually grown 
in this country exceeds the value of 
all the flax fibre raised in Great Britain 
and Ireland, equals the value of the cele- 
brated Belgian flax crop, is far in excess 
of the value of the Dutch crop, and is four 
or five times more valuable than all the 
flax fibre, straw, and tow of flax, now 
imported into this country for domestic 
manufacture, while it is of ten times 
greater value than all the manufactures 
of linen imported, other than woven 
fabrics, which are not manufactured here 
except in limited quantity. The Territory 
of Dakota alone produces flax seed to the 
extent of double the value of all the flax 
fibre imported. It is stated in a recent 
official document that " in many instances 
a single crop [of seed] has paid for the 
land, in addition to the cost of breaking 
and planting." With such facts before us, 
and bearinofin mind the so-called aro-uments 
in favor of maintaining a duty on scutched 
and hackled flax with the supposed object 
of inducing the growth of flax fibre, it may 
be expected that we shall next be gravely 
informed that the major is contained in the 



1 2 INTROD UCTION. 

minor quantity ; recalling Sir Isaac New- 
ton's amusino^ adventure durino- an absent- 
minded spell in cutting a hole in the door 
for his cat to pass through, and then 
making a smaller aperture for the accom- 
modation of the kitten. 

It need not be doubted that the growers 
will discover the proper time to produce 
flax fibre, without being helped thereunto 
by peripatetic blowing of penny whistles, 
and the periodical explosion of sky-rockets, 
which has been witnessed in these modern 
times, in relation to this question. 

When we consider the fact that Russia 
can annually export over four hundred 
million pounds of flax, In addition to a 
large home consumption ; when we reflect 
that under the stimulus of good prices and 
a special demand during the period of 
scarcity of cotton In this country, our flax- 
growers never attained an annual product 
of thirty million pounds, — say one-fif- 
teenth of the Russian export, — what Is 
the Inevitable deduction from such data ? 
Is it not clear and conclusive that the 
farmers fully appreciate the merits of 
the case, " the want of a regular and 



IX TROD UCTIOX. 1 3 

accessible market"? It indicates no less 
clearly the futility of present attempts to 
shriek our farmers into flax culture, as well 
as the folly of perpetuating the import 
duty upon a material which, as all the facts 
and statistics show, must be imported if 
flax-spinning- is to continue in this country. 
When an increased use of flax fibre shall 
have been superinduced through the devel- 
opment of the manufacture of woven linen 
fabrics, the intelligence of the farmers may 
be relied on to avail themselves of what- 
ever advantages may be offered by such 
enlargement of the demand at home for 
flax of high quality. 

Meanwhile, what is the rational course 
for the economist and the legislator ? 
There is but one answer : Provide an 
adequate demand before creating a supply ; 
remove every impediment, — take the duty 
off the raw material, and thus encourage 
the establishment of flax-spinning enter- 
prises in our midst, and the supply of 
home-grown flax will, in due season, doubt- 
less be forthcoming. As President Monroe 
so suggestively intimates in his masterly 
communication to Congress, in 182 i, " By 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

the increase of domestic manufactures will 
the demand for the rude materials at home 
be Increased." 

It has been said by the opponents ot 
free flax, that because the duty on scutched 
flax is two per centum more than on 
hackled flax, a large proportion of flax 
imports consists of hackled flax, which 
would, but for this difference of two per 
cent of duty, be imported as scutched flax 
to be hackled here. That there are those 
who can listen to a proposition that two 
per centum less duty will oflset a difference 
of one hundred per centum in the wages, 
which is admitted to exist between hack- 
lers' wages here and in Europe, indicates 
the height of absurdity to which the dis- 
cussion of this flax question sometimes 
aspires. A glance at the statistics will 
show how needless are the crocodile's 
tears which a mention of the hackler's 
hypothetical hard lot seldom fails to bring 
forth. The imports of scutched flax in 
18S7 were 4,645 tons, value $1,026,207 ; of 
hackled flax, 1,236 tons, value $649,73 7- ^^ 
we compare the relative value of scutched 
and hackled flax imported in 1SS4 and in 



INTRO D UCTION. 1 5 

1887, ^^^ ^t once see how little foundation 
there is for the outcry now being raised, 
ostensibly in behalf of domestic hacklers. 
While the increase in the imports, during 
the period named, of hackled flax, was 
less than twenty per centum, the imports 
of scutched tlax show a sfain in the same 
time of over seventy-five per centum in 
value. And yet we are seriously invited 
to pity the poor hackler, and shield him 
from the assaults of that terrible ogre, the 
hackled flax importer ! 

It will be observed that throughout this 
volume the nomenclature of raw flax which 
obtained prior to the tarift" of 1S70 is 
employed. Raw flax is held to mean the 
fibre of the flax plant so long as it remains 
a fibre simply. The several preparatory 
processes through which the fibre passes 
— rippling, steeping, spreading, lifting, 
scutching, hackling, each requiring care 
and mechanical dexterity — are designed 
and intended to put the fibre into a con- 
dition suited to the reception of the first 
process of manufacture, i.e., the preparing. 
Until the preparing frame has metamor- 
phosed the material, there is no essen- 



1 6 INTRODUCTION. 

tial change in the form or nature of the 
substance : the bulk is lessened, the 
dross thrown off, the fibre disintegrated, 
but it is a fibre still ; it is flax, not a yarn, 
nor in any scientific sense a manufactured 
product ; it is unfit for use in any art, and 
is therefore strictly a raw material, and 
nothing more. In this sense it was always 
regarded and legislated upon before the 
passage of the Act of 1870, when by spe- 
cial pleading and sophistical ratiocination, 
suggested by the exigencies of a private 
need and particular interests, it was sought 
to attach to hackled flax a different char- 
acter from scutched flax. That this is an 
unnatural, far-fetched designation, a " dis- 
tinction without a difference," will be ad- 
mitted by those who candidly analyze the 
nature of the material, who study and re- 
flect upon the methods of manipulation to 
which it is subjected, and who, throwing 
aside that prejudice which is born of a 
restricted vision, regard the elements and 
principles at issue with the single desire to 
judge aright, and form a just conclusion. 



FLAX. 

Its Culture and Use in the United States. 



Among the articles placed upon the 
" free list," in the so-called Mills Tariff 
Bill, is unmanufactured flax in its various 
forms, dressed and undressed. At a recent 
meeting of the Flax and Hemp Spinners' 
and Growers' Association, held this year in 
the city of Washington presumably for the 
purpose of influencing legislation, it was 
unanimously voted that the interests of 
the flax industry require that the present 
duty on unmanufactured flax be retained ; 
and memorials were presented signed by 
employees and workingmen in flax manu- 
facturing establishments to the same effect. 
The present treatise is devoted to a review 
of the condition of the flax industry in the 
United States, and an examination of the 



1 8 FLAX CULTURE 

question whether the present rates of duty 
are of any benefit to our flax growers, and 
may not, indeed, be a burden to the farmer 
as well as to the manufacturer and con- 
sumer ; whether, in short, the duty on raw 
flax is not one of those curiosities of the 
protective system that the tariff reformer, 
whether free-trader or protectionist, desires 
to remove. 

Flax has been grown and manufactured 
in this country ever since the first colonies 
were settled. Before the invention of the 
cotton-gin so cheapened the production of 
cotton fabric, flax spinning and weaving 
was a common household industry. The 
older generation of the present day re- 
member the spinning-wheel, and distaff 
wound with flax, in the corner of the 
country kitchen. 

The importance of the industry was 
early recognized, and it was carefully 
fostered by legislation. The Massachu- 
setts General Assembly passed an Act to 
encourage the production of flax as early 
as 1640; and Massachusetts was followed 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 1 9 

by Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and 
other States.' In 17 19 a large immigra- 
tion of Scotch- Irish from Londonderry to 
New Hampshire improved the colonial 
knowledofe of the cultivation and manu- 
facture of flax.^ A series of papers be- 
tween 1787 and 1 79 1, by Tench Coxe, 
Commissioner of the Revenue, shows the 
manufacture "in a household way" of all 
sorts of linen goods. In the first nine 
months of 1791 he reports the manufac- 
ture, " in a family way," of 25,265 yards of 
linen cloth in Massachusetts and Rhode 
Island alone. The census of 18 10 shows 
tHe production for the census year, of 
21,211,262 yards of linen made in families. 
Of this amount New York produced 
5,303,000 yards; Pennsylvania, 3,000,000; 
Connecticut, 2,250,000; and New Hamp- 
shire, 1,000,000 yards. The flax was in 
most cases grown by the families that 
manufactured the linen. ^ Sixty years ago 
Connecticut flax was strong, clean, and 

* Rep. of Dept. of Ag. for 1862, p. 119. ^ Ibid. 

3 Rep. of Dept. of Ag. for 1S77, P- l?^. 



20 FLAX CULTURE 

good. The flax from New York and 
Vermont was strong but not clean.' 

As has been said, the uivention of the 
cotton-gui, and the consequent cheapen- 
ing of cotton cloth, destroyed this house- 
hold industry ; but it by no means killed 
the linen industry. For certain purposes 
linen is indispensable ; and its strength, 
beauty, and durabihty so far surpass 
cotton, that it maintains its place in defi- 
ance of all competition. 

However, the domestic production of 
flax fibre gradually fell off^ and died out ; 
and, to quote from the report of a Con- 
gressional commission in 1864, " It is 
well known that the only mill of this class 
in our country', fully equipped for spin- 
ning and weaving fine long line yarns 
(located at Fall River, Mass.), was, after 
a great outlay of capital and immense 
exertions to operate at a profit, converted 
into a cotton-mill at a heavy loss, in con- 
sequence of an insufficient home supply 
(of raw material), the mill being precluded 

' Kep. of Dept. of Ag. for 1S79, p. 573. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 21 

from using foreign stock by a practically 
interdlctive duty." ' In other words, for 
some reason, a " practically interdictive 
duty " did not induce our farmers to turn 
their attention to the cultivation of fine 
flax fibre. 

Let us now see what protection the tariff 
has afforded to the flax growers. From 
the establishment of the government until 
1842, unmanufactured flax was admitted 
free of duty, except for a short time be- 
tween 1828 and 1832, when a duty of 
thirty-five and sixty dollars a ton was im- 
posed.^ Even Alexander Hamilton in his 
watchful care of American industries saw 
no reason for imposing a duty on raw flax. 
In 1842 a uniform duty of twenty dollars 
a ton was imposed on all forms of raw flax. 
In 1846 this was changed to an ad valorem 
duty of fifteen per cent, which amounted to 
twenty-five to thirty dollars per ton on the 

' 38th Congress, 2d session, Sen. Ex. Doc. 35, p. 51. 

^ "On unmanufactured flax, thirty-five dollars per ton, until 
the thirtieth day of June, 1S29, from which time an additional 
duty of five dollars per ton per annum, until the duty shall 
amount to sixty dollars per ton." Act of May 19, 182S. United 
States Statutes at Large, vol. iv. p. 272. 



22 FLAX CULTURE 

average. In 1857 raw flax was again re- 
stored to the free list, and it there remained 
until the war tariff of 1861 which imposed 
a uniform duty of fifteen dollars per ton. 
This fiorure ran the crauntlet of some six- 
teen tariff bills, until 1870, when raw flax 
received a most vigorous taxing. Flax 
straw, which had never hitherto had any 
duty imposed on it, was now taxed five 
dollars per ton, — a prohibitory duty. The 
duty on the tow of flax, which had been 
five dollars per ton, was doubled ; and a 
curious distinction, which had never been 
thousfht of before, was made in the forms 
of flax fibre. The duty on the undressed 
fibre was raised from fifteen to twenty 
dollars per ton ; but dressed or " hackled " 
flax, which is the fibre with the chaff and 
tow combed out, practically merely cleaned, 
was taxed forty dollars per ton. These are 
now the present rates of duty.' 

We have seen that the tarift' killed one 

' These figures are taken from the " Tariff Compilation, 
1SS4," 48th Cong., 1st session, Sen. No. 12. 

In this connection, tlie following cjuotation from a letter 
of a manufacturer to the Secretary of the Treasury in 1886 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 23 

large linen industry ; what has been the 
history of the general industry? An enor- 
mous impulse was given to the flax indus- 
try during the war of the Rebellion. The 
supplies of raw cotton were cut off, and 
the Northern mills lay idle. This increased 
the demand for linen goods, and every 
effort was made to encourage the domestic 
production of flax. The Agricultural Re- 
ports of the United States during the years 
of the war are full of careful reports on 
flax, and contain much valuable informa- 
tion on flax culture to aid the farmer. In 
1863 Congress appropriated twenty thou- 
sand dollars for an investio^ation " to test 
the practicability of cultivating and prepar- 
ing flax or hemp as a substitute for cotton." 
A commission was appointed which exam- 
ined the whole subject thoroughly, and 

is of interest: " Flax is long fibred and kept straight. Tow is 
short fibred and not kept straight. Flax is usually tied in 
bundles of about one hundred pounds each, and tow is pressed 
into bales of about five hundred pounds each. Hundreds of 
tons of flax have been entered at ten dollars per ton duty, 
during the past three or four years, by being laid straight into 
tow presses, and pressed into five-hundred-pound bales, like 
tow." — Rep. of Sec. of Tr. on Tar. Revis., p. 105. 



24 FLAX CULTURE 

made a most elaborate report to Congress.' 
These efforts of the General Government, 
combined with the high price of flax, stim- 
ulated the growth of flax, and the amount 
of flax fibre produced was large. When, 
however, the close of the war supplied the 
mills with cotton, the production of flax 
fibre began to fall oft', so that, to quote 
from the Agricultural Report of the United 
States for 1879, " It is impossible to esti- 
mate the amount of American dressed flax 
consumed at the present time. It is a 
ridiculously small amount at best, — too 
small for a country boasting such diversity 
of soil and climate. The quality of the 
last crop was considerably below the aver- 
age, and the yield was likewise small." ^ 
To-day, in 188S, the best-informed men 
in the flax-fibre industry are unable to 
estimate the amount of American flax pro- 
duced. A Qfood deal of flax is still sown, 
but merely for the seed. Nothing is so 
convincino- as the actual statistics, and that 
is our excuse for the tables below. 

' 3Sth Cong., 2d session, Sen. Ex. Doc. 35. - p. 579. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 25 
Statistics of the Productiim of Flax Fibi-e in the United States. 



Pounds of fibre 
produced. 


Census of 
1850. 


Census of 

i860. 


Census of 
1870. 


Census of 
1880. 


7,709,676 


4,720,145 


27,133,034 


1,565,546 



Thus, in spite of the high rate of duty 
imposed in 1870, the production of flax 
has fallen off enormously, and the amount 
produced in 1880, under a high tariff, was 
less than one-third the amount produced 
in i860, when flax was on the free list. 

Ohio has been a leadingf State in the 
cultivation of flax. The following figures, 
taken from the State Agricultural Reports, 
will indicate the history of the flax industry 
in that State : ' — 



Pounds of Fibre produced. 


Pounds of Fibre produced. 


In 1862 
1865 
1870 
1871 


2,738,238 

3,146,892 

16,864,378 

" 24,477,361 


In 1875 
1880 
1883 


5,285,417 

3 5,642,025 
2,501,545 



' See Rep. U. S. Dept. Ag. for 1877, p. 175. 

^ Highest point reached. 

^ There is a discrepancy between these figures and those in 
the return of the United States Census. This is probably due 
to the return of the State Board including coarse fibre and tow 
not taken into account by the census officers. 



26 



FLAX CULTURE 



It is estimated that in 18S3 seventy-five 
million pounds of straw were grown in 
Ohio, though but two and a half million 
pounds of fibre are returned, five or six 
pounds of straw producing one of fibre. 
The remainder of the straw was burnt. 
The rapid decrease of the production in 
Ohio is shown most strikingly by referring 
to the fio'ures from a few counties. 



Produc- 
tion in 
pounds. 


Trumbull 
County. 


('■reene 
Couniy. 


Allen 
County. 


Preble 
County. 


D,irke 
County. 


1881 

1882 
18S3 


459,435 

150.900 
66,890 


338,900 

20,434 
I 1 .000 


155,900 
10,621 


433,700 

134,800 

4,114 


339.676 
87,178 
56,880 



New York was once a laree flax-Qfrowinof 
region ; and a similar comparison by coun- 
ties shows the history of flax in New York, 
the figures being taken from the United- 
States census. 



Produc- 
tion in 
pounds. 


Whole 
State. 


Washington 
County. 


Rens.selaer 
County. 


S.Lawrence 
County. 


Schoharie 
County. 


1S70 
18S0 


3,670,818 
843,965 


1,285,033 
343,262 


774,773 
324,642 


104,266 
1,510 


84,811 

30 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 



27 



These are some of the counties where 
the well-known " North River flax " is 
grown, Rensselaer County being " the seat 
of the linen industry in this country." ' 
Turn now to the statistics of the imports 
of unmanufactured flax into the United 
States, the figures being taken from the 
Agricultural Report of the United States 
for 1877, except for the two last years. 





Cwt. 


Value. 


1850 .... 


14,474 


$128,917 


1855 . 








28,961 


286,809 


IS60 . 










213,687 


1865 . 








28,332 


369,359 


1870 . 








38,540 


605,962 


187s • 








86,440 


1,112,405 


I88I . 








108,920 


1,462,286 


1887 . 








141,960 


1,908,845 



It is instructive but tiresome to multiply 
tables. Some further tables, giving the 
most recent statistics, are to be found in 
the appendix. 

' Rep. Dept. Ag. U. S. for 1S77, p- 1S3. 



28 FLAX CULTURE 

It has been assumed in the foreofoinsf 
discussion, that the flax fibre produced in 
this country, though yearly diminishing in 
amount, was of a fine quaUty suitable for 
manufacture into threads and cloths. But 
this is very far from the truth, and it may 
be confidently asserted that outside of a 
very small amount of " North River flax" 
grown in New York, and possibly an in- 
significant amount grown in New Jersey, 
the bulk of American flax is fit only for 
paper-stock or upholsterer's tow, and only 
a small amount is good enough for even 
the very coarsest kind of bagging. 

In 1879 Mr. Gary, a flax manufacturer 
of Dayton, O., estimated that there were 
then a hundred flax-mills in the West turn- 
ing out a yearly product of three hundred 
tons o{ toiv. Three-tenths of this amount, 
he estimated, was used by upholsterers, 
four-tenths as paper-stock, and the remain- 
ino^ three-tenths for baofeinsf-' The follow- 
ing significant note is repeated in the 
Agricultural Reports for the State of Ohio 

' Rep. Dept. Ag. for 1879, p. 577. 



AA'D USE IN UNITED STATES. 29 

for the years 1881, 1882, 1883, at the end 
of the tables showing the production of 
fiax : " This crop is of very uneven dis- 
tribution throughout the State, though not 
for lack of adaptation of soil or climate. 
T/ie total production has muck diminished 
since the change in the tariff on jute. It 
was formerly considered one of our best 
paying crops for its cost of production, 
and was somewhat extensively raised." ' 
Jute is an East-Indian fibre used in the 
manufacture of coarse bagging. The Agri- 
cultural Report of the United States for 
1877 also shows that the fibre produced 
was of the very coarsest kind, and the 
production was stopped by the placing of 
jute on the free list. In Portage County, 
Ohio, the report goes on to say, "The 
largest Max-mill in operation a few years 
ago has failed. The market for seed and 
fibre was too far away ; and though the crop 
paid well, it was thought to be exhaust- 
ing to the land ; and now one may travel 
hundreds of miles in the county, and not 

* See Rep. Dept. of Ag. Ohio, 1SS3, p. 405. 



30 FLAX CULTURE 

see a flax field."' " In Delaware County, 
of the four yfc?.r-mills formerly in opera- 
tion, the three smaller ones run about one- 
fourth time, producing- tow which now sells 
for two and a half cents per pound." ^ 

As has been said, a small amount of the 
better grade of flax is produced in New 
York, but even there the production is 
rapidly falling off, and the quality declin- 
ing, A mill at Herkimer, the same report 
says, uses forty tons annually, and em- 
ploys two hands, cheese dairying having 
almost entirely superseded flax culture ; 
and flax for the mills in Rensselaer Coun- 
ty is largely imported from Canada and 
Europe.^ 

In the Transactions of the New York 
State Agricultm-al Society for 1870 (p. 
491), there is a report from the secretary 
of the local society in Washington County, 
the source of much North River flax. He 
says, " Favorable mention may be made of 
the flax crop, but it becomes evident from 
year to year that its culture is decreasing. 
■ p. 1S2. ^ p. 1S3. 3 iijid. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 3 1 

Our thirty or more flax-mills have dwin- 
dled to a half-dozen." 

Nor is all the flax grown in New York 
of a quality suitable for linen manufac- 
ture, as witness the report from Steuben 
County, found in the Transactions of the 
State Society for 187 1 (p. 599). The sec- 
retary of the County Society says, "The 
culture of flax is already occupying much 
of the attention of the farmers in the 
northern part of our county. This sea- 
son about four hundred acres were sown. 
The straw is entirely used in making up- 
holsterers tow!' 

This State Society takes the place in 
New York of a State Department of Agri- 
culture, and its annual reports are now 
published with the official documents of 
the State. It is a curious commentary on 
the importance of the flax industry in 
New York, that since 1871 there is no 
mention of flax to be found in these 
annual reports, although much space is 
devoted to almost every crop ; nor do the 
reports from the counties mention flax. 



32 FLAX CULTURE 

The Tariff Commission appointed in 
1882 paid a good deal of attention to flax, 
and incidentally much tliat is interesting 
came out in the testimony. Mr. Hiram 
Sisson of Eagle Bridge, N.Y., appeared 
before the commission as representing 
the flax-growing industry. His testimony 
is so instructive that it is quoted at 
length : — 

Q. How much capital in round numbers is in- 
vesied in the manufacture of flax, jute, and hemp 
fibre to be used in textile fabrics in this country? 

A. I am not prepared to state. 

Q. Is there any considerable amount invested? 

A. They are raising a great deal of flax in the 
West at present, but it is for seed only. 

Q. I am not talking about that ; but I understand 
from the paper submitted by your association (Flax 
and Hemp Spinners' and Growers') that you recom- 
mend ail additional duty on the raw material, rather 
in the hojie of encouraging the growth of the raw 
product in this country for the purpose of manufac- 
ture hereafter, than for the purpose of protecting an 
agricultural industry, if I may so call it, which has not 
attained any considerable magnitude. 

A. We are in hopes, if we could get more protec- 
tion, that this business would increase and enlarge. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 33 

Q. I understand that it is grown now principally 
for seed, jxcept in New York State. 

A They do that, but they cannot afford to raise 
tlie flax, and prepare it for market, because there is no 
money in it. 

Q. And it is not now raised for market, except in 
New York State ? 

A. But a duty might help to do that. 

Q. That is exactly what I wanted to get at. 
Now, can you tell me about how much capital is in- 
vested in New York State in the production of the 
fibre, exclusive of the seed for oil? 

A. I do not know that I could answer that, except 
by saying that within the past year (1881) I have han- 
dled between four and five hundred thousand pounds 
of dressed flax. 

Q. And that flax was produced in the State of 
New York ? 

A. Yes, sir ; produced in the State of New York. 

Q. What is the value of that flax? 

A. Perhaps that amount would be worth $60,000. 

Q. And the capital invested in producing that 
amount of material is how much ? 

A. I could not say. The fai-??ier sows it, and 
then it goes to market, and he gets what he can out 
of it. 

Q. But there are not firms exclusively devoted to 
this industry? 

A. No, sir. 



34 FLAX CULTURE 

Q. How much enhancement of price would be 
necessary to induce the farmers to bring it (the flax 
straw that is now burned in the fields), to market? 

A. That I cannot state. 

Q. As I understand, the reason it is not used by 
the manufacturers, is that they can buy the material 
in other quarters cheaper than they can get it of the 
farmers of the West. 

A. Certainly. 

Q. Can you tell how much cheaper they can buy 
it in that way ? 

A. I cannot say, because there are so many grades 
of flax. / a?/i not very well informed in regard to 
American flax.^ 

Very evidently not, and yet this is the 
sort of testimony that is rehed on to 
keep the duty on flax. 

Mr. Sisson apparently forgot to say that 
cheese dairying was replacing flax culture 
in New York. He remembered only that 
he handled half a million pounds of New- 
York flax the previous year (1881). If 
that is correct, he must have handled more 
than half the crop of the State, as the 
whole production of New York by the 

' Rep. of Tar. Com., pp. 2S2, 2S3. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 35 

census of 1880 was 843,965 pounds. This, 
at Mr. Sisson's figures, would be worth 
something over $100,000; and yet to en- 
able a few fiax dealers in New York to 
handle even less than this amount, the 
American people were called upon to pay 
$154,508.63 in duties on raw flax during 
the year ending June 30, 1887, and domes- 
tic linen manufacturers were handicapped 
to that extent. 

It was variously estimated before the 
commission, that from half a million to a 
million tons of flax are annually burned 
by Western farmers.' The larger limit is 
probably nearer the truth. Mr. Sisson 
tried to convey the Impression in his testi- 
mony, that this was done because the 
manufacturers of linen could buy their flax 
cheaper abroad ; and that, although the 
Western farmer would be glad to give 
away the straw to be rid of it. As Mr. 
Sisson expressly stated that he was not 
well informed as to American flax, his 
misstatements may be perhaps excusable ; 

" Rep. Tar. Com., pp. 2S7, 28?, 992. 



36 FLAX CULTURE 

but the truth is, that this Western flax 
is utterly worthless for linen manufacture. 
The flax is grown for the seed, and the 
fibre is coarse and useless for fine goods. 

Such being the condition of the flax- 
o-rowincr interest, what is the state of 
manufactures of flax in this country ? 
The tale is almost as doleful. In the peti- 
tion of the Flax and Hemp Spinners' and 
Growers' Association to the Tariff' Com- 
mission, it is recited that " Several millions 
of dollars have been expended by more 
than fifty flax-spinning mills, in an effort 
to manufacture linen goods in the United 
States ; but although capital was not lack- 
ing, the American Linen Co. of Fall River, 
Mass., the Willimantic Linen Co., the 
United States Linen Co., the Sprague 
Linen Co., and many others, had to aban- 
don the business, ... so that the pres- 
ent manufacturing establishments number 
about one dozen." ' It was also shown in 
evidence, that there were only ten millions 
of dollars invested in this country in the 

' Rep. Tar. Com., p. 2S7. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 37 

manufacture of flax, hemp,' etc., — an 
amount but very little in excess of the 
amount paid in duties on flax, hemp, etc., 
for 1887 (^9,497,981.74). 

The present condition of the flax-grow- 
ing interest in this country was very well 
summed up by one of the manufacturers, 
in his testimony before the Tariff Com- 
mission. 

(p. 275.) Q. What is the objection to 
putting flax, jute, and hemp on the free 
list, as raw silk and raw cotton are now 
on the free list ? A. My answer is, thai 
it would spoil a magnificejtt possibility for 
the American people. 

This is indeed protection run mad, — 
to tax the whole American people annually 
as much as the entire capital invested in 
the flax industry, in order not to spoil a 
magnificent possibility, and what, in spite 
of strenuous efforts on the part of the 
Government, has remained a possibility for 
a hundred years. If the witness had 
called it a magnificent impossibility while 

' Rep. Tar. Com., p. 288. 



38 FLAX CULTURE 

the present tariff on raw flax, dressed and 
undressed, continues, he would have been 
nearer the truth. If, however, he meant 
a possibihty in taxation, the prospect is 
truly magnificent. 

What, then, is the reason for this con- 
dition of the flax-growing- industry in the 
United States ? Is it because the tariff is 
not high enough, and more protection is 
needed ? It would seem that if good flax 
can be easily raised in the United States, 
the present prices would be a sufficient 
inducement to the farmer without any 
duty at all. Flax fibre brings from $300 
to $500 per ton, and the finest grades of 
dressed flax bring as high as $750 a ton.' 
The average price of the " dressed line " 
imported in 18S7 was $525 per ton. The 
Western farmer sells his straw at ^3 to $6 
per ton, and, more often than not, is un- 
able to sell it at any price. 

The Flax and Hemp Spinners' and 
Growers' Association says that a higher 
duty is needed; although a leading manu- 

' Rep. Tar. Com., p. 1526. Rep. Dept. Ag. 1S79, p. 56S. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 39 

facturer and member of that association 
told the Secretary of the Treasury in 
1886, "The duty upon foreign flax is $20 
per ton, which is, and has been, entirely 
inadequate to insure the cultivation of 
flax fibre in this country for our own use. 
The duty should be increased to $60 
per ton as a stimulus to the American 
agriculturist." ' But what say the farmers? 
The report of the Tariff Commission 
gives some light on this point, in the 
testimony of H. Koelkenbeck of Chicago. 
He testified that he was not connected 
with any manufacturing industry, and was 
engaged in improving flax culture in the 
West. He had visited the flax districts 
of Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa, and was 
the only person who appeared before 
the Commission who showed an intimate 
knowledge of flax culture. His testimony 
is as follows : — 

Q. " You are decidedly of the opinion 
that the taking off the duty on flax would 

' Rept. of Secretary of Treas. on Revision of the Tariff, 
1886, p. 105. No data are given to show that this increase of 
duty would produce the desired result. 



40 FLAX CULTURE 

not interfere with its manufacture in this 
country ? " 

A. " My opinion is that if there was 
$1000 duty on flax [per ton], it would not 
make the shghtest difference with farm- 
ers. I have been four weeks among the 
farmers of Missouri and IlHnois, and I 
have asked them, 'What do you think 
of the present duty?' They say, 'We 
do not trouble ourselves about it : we 
could not undertake the preparation of 
flax fibre for manufacturing purposes ; 
it is altogether out of our power to 
do so : we have not the knowledge or 
the time for it.' " ' 

And later when he was again asked re- 
specting the farmers, he said, " The farmer 
says, ' I cannot trouble myself about that, 
because there is nobody who wants the 
fibre. Nobody comes along and pays me 
a reasonable price for it ; for if I was to 
cultivate flax especially for its fibre, I would 
have to bestow a o-reat deal more labor and 
care on it, and have to sow four times as 

' P- 995- 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 4 1 

much seed ; and I prefer my present mode 
of culture.' "' 

Here, it is submitted, is the key of the 
difficulty. The fibre that is at present 
grown in this country is worthless for the 
manufacture of linen, and the farmer can- 
not produce suitable fibre without very 
much more trouble and labor than he is 
willing to give in the present state of agri- 
culture. That is the whole trouble, and 
the only trouble, with the flax-growing 
industry, and no amount of duty can over- 
come it. 

In order to bring out this point more 
clearly, it is necessary to give a brief 
account of the methods of cultivation 
necessary for the production of fine flax 
fibre, and contrast them with the agricul- 
tural methods at present in vogue in 
America. 

The finest flax in the world is produced 

in France and Belgium, and it is generally 

conceded that the success of the French 

and Belgian growers is largely due to their 

' p. 996. 



42 FLAX CULTURE 

methods of cultivation. The United States 
Government in its Agricultural Reports has 
often described the best methods of flax 
culture, and the substance of this sketch 
is taken from the Agricultural Report for 
1879. The report in this volume, cover- 
ing over a hundred pages, is by Charles 
R. Dodoe. In his letter transmittino- the 
report he says, " The report has been pre- 
pared particularly with a view of impress- 
ing upon our farmers at this time the 
importance of fibre cultivation as an ele- 
ment of farm practice, in the hopes that 
languishing industries may be revived, 
and new ones established. The best prac- 
tice in regard to cultivation and prepara- 
tion of the fibre has been given." 

Flax is peculiarly susceptible to influ- 
ences of climate and soil. It requires a 
moist climate, and for that reason the low- 
lands of Holland and Belgium are well 
adapted to flax. A moist, deep, strong 
loam forms the best soil. The flax plant 
grows from two to five feet in height, and 
the roots penetrate deep into the ground, 



AND USE nv UNITED STATES. 43 

frequently extending as far into the ground 
as the plant extends above it. The 
ground must be ploughed deep, and well 
pulverized. The land should be ploughed 
in the fall, and in the spring a second 
ploughing should be followed by a thorough 
harrowing, and before sowing the ground 
should be ploughed and harrowed again. 
In Belgium, the land is, in addition, thor- 
oughly trenched w^th a spade. Much 
attention is given to the manuring of the 
land. In the fall, twenty-five to thirty 
loads of solid manure to each acre are 
ploughed in, and in the spring liquid ma- 
nure is applied to the extent of twenty- 
five hundred gallons per acre.' After the 
last harrowing the land is rolled, and then 
gone over with a hand bush, or w^ooden, 
harrow followed by a light roller, as in 
that condition of the ground a heavy 
horse would trample it down too much. 
"The object of the Belgian farmer," says 
the Congressional Commission of 1863, 
"is to obtain a deep and friable soil, 

' Rep. Dept. Ag. 1S79, p. 5S6. 



44 FLAX CULTURE 

equally enriched throughout, which is only 
accomplished by great care and attention. 
The land has the appearance of the most 
perfect garden cultivation," ' 

Much attention is paid to the rotation 
of crops, flax being rarely planted oftener 
than once in seven or eight years on the 
same land.- 

After the land is prepared, the sowing 
must be carefully done. The seed should 
be sown in rows eight or nine feet apart, 
and the sowing had best be done by hand. 
It should be evenly sown, and much prac- 
tice is necessary, as the seed is very 
slippery. The Belgian farmers, who cul- 
tivate for fibre, sow from two to four 
bushels of seed to the acre ; the Ameri- 
can, who cultivates chiefly for the seed, 
sows half a bushel or three pecks to the 
acre. Where the seed is evenly and 
thickly sown, the plants grow tall and 
slender without much branching except 
at the top, and the fibre is thus long and 
fine. Where the seed is thinly sown, the 

' Rept., p. 22. • Rep. Dept, Ag. 1S79, p. 5S5. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 45 

plant grows low and bushy, with many 
branches growing out close to the ground.' 
The fibre in such plants is coarse, weak, 
and brittle, and worthless for the manufac- 
ture of any but the very coarsest fabrics, 
but the yield of seed is large. ^ 

After the sowing, the land should be 
again gone over with the hand-harrow 
and roller. 

While the flax is ofrowinor, it must be 
carefully tended to remove all weeds. In 
Belgium the weeding is done by hand, 
when the plants are a few inches high, 
by women and children who crawl about 
on their hands and knees with cloths to 
protect them from the ground, working 
always towards the wand so that the plants 
may be at once blown back in an upright 
position. 5 All writers agree that it is 
absolutely essential to remove all weeds. 
" Flax will not thrive in close proximity 
to obnoxious weeds ; on dirty land it will 
prove a failure, or will treble the expense 

' Rep. Dept. Ag. 1S79, P- SS?- ^ Rep. Dept. Ag. 1S62, p. 115. 
3 Rep. Dept. Ag. 1879, P- SS?- 



46 FLAX CULTURE 

of harvesting," says one.' " It is a crop 
that absolutely compels clean culture," 
says another, for " weeds stunt the stem 
and impair the fibre." ^ It is easy to see 
what a task this imposes on the Ameri- 
can farmer, with the wonderful reproduc- 
tive power of weeds in our fertile soils. 
Who has not seen a field neglected for a 
few weeks after harvest, so covered with 
a dense mass of bushy and clinging weeds 
that locomotion is seriously impeded, and 
the traveller struggles through to find his 
clothinof covered with roueh burs and 
clinging seeds ? All this is utterly incom- 
patible with flax culture. In fact, Mr. J. 
R. Dodge, an expert in tlax culture, in a 
report printed in the Congressional docu- 
ments of the Thirty-eighth Congress, says 
that the trouble with weeds is the promi- 
nent reason why fiax is not cultivated in 
the United States. " The task is too her- 
culean for the industry and perseverance 
of our farmers, when natural disinclination 

' Rep. Dept. Ag. 1S64, p. 92. 
- Rep. Dept. Ag. 1S63, p. 116. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 47 

is combined with the high price of labor." 
He enumerates the various weeds that 
afflict the flax grower, and quotes from 
an old English local poet, speaking of 
the kerlock weed, — 

" But he says, says 'e, ' It ain't no use 
Vor to go to a girt expense, 
Vor 'twill come agen, whate'er thee does, 
Nor a year a two from hence.' " ' 

The flax should be harvested when the 
leaves begin to fall and the stems turn 
yellow, albeit the seed is not at that time 
fully ripe. In Europe, the harvesting is 
done by pulling the plant up by the roots. 
In this country it is usually cut with a 
machine. Pulling is essential to the best 
fibre ; for, apart from the fact that cutting 
dries and injures the fibre and gathers the 
weeds, it is said that " one inch of straw 
at the base is worth two at the top of the 
plant." ^ The pulling is thus described : 
" When the flax is standing- erect, a hand- 

' Also in Rep. Dept. Ag. 1863, p. 116. 
* Rep. Cong. Com. p. 24. 



48 FLAX CULTURE 

ful should be grasped with both hands 
just below the seed-bolls, and pulled ob- 
liquely from the ground with a sudden 
jerk, the dirt adhering to the roots being 
shaken or knocked off on the boot." ' The 
plants should then be laid evenly on the 
ground, and be kept straight throughout. 

Compare this careful and tedious cul- 
ture with the methods that now obtain in 
the West. There flax is grown for the 
seed, which is used for making linseed- 
oil. The seed is allowed to ripen fully, 
thereby injuring the fibre. Mr. Hiram 
Sisson, although he represents himself 
as not very well acquainted with Ameri- 
can flax, told the Tariff Commission, " I 
will tell you what I know about flax in 
Illinois and Iowa. There they sow their 
flax for the seed wholly. All they do is 
to plough the ground, sow their seed, and 
mow the flax with a machine, dry it, and 
put it through a machine that is pro- 
pelled by horse-power, to knock off the 
seed, leaving the straw on the field." ^ And 

' Rep. Dept. Ag. 1879, p. 588. ^ Rep. Tar. Com., p. 281. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 49 

yet Mr. Sisson tried to make the commis- 
sion believe that an increase in duty would 
bring this sort of stuff to the flax market. 
The linen-manufacturer can do nothing 
with this straw that is sold by the load, 
like hay in a tangled bulk of fibre, pitched 
on the load loose as it comes. In some 
sections it can't be sold at any price, and 
in such case is burned to get rid of it.' 

Mr. H. H. Stevens, of Lexington, Ky., 
who appeared before the Tariff Commis- 
sion in behalf of free flax machinery, said, 
" It is the handling of the stalk that makes 
or mars the fibre. An Englishman some 
thirty years ago said of Anierican flax, 
' They handle it like hay.' It is the same 
to-day." ^ 

The Congressional Commission of 1863, 
in summing up the situation in this coun- 
try, say, " The raising of marketable flax 
for long line, imposes too many burdens on 
the grower, and is produced at too great a 
sacrifice of seed, to warrant at present its 
extensive cultivation in this country. . . . 

' Rep. Dept. Ag. 1S79, P- 572- ^ Rep. Tar. Com., p. 1948. 



50 FLAX CULTURE 

It seems to be better adapted to countries 
of humid climate, and of comparatively 
small areas of cultivation, subdivided 
among- a dense population, accustomed 
to cheap hand labor." ' It is submitted 
that this is equally true to-day. 

The flax is, however, by no means ready 
for market when it is pulled from the 
ofround. The flax of the arts is the fibre 
between the outer bark and the inner 
woody pith of the plant ; and several 
tedious processes, requiring skill and ex- 
perience, are necessary to separate the 
fibre from the wood and bark. Most of 
this work must be done by the farmer, 
before his product is marketable, partly 
because much of the work can only be 
done by hand, and partly because, in our 
vast country, the flax-mills are too far 
away to warrant the shipment of the bulky 
flax straw. A brief review of these pro- 
cesses is necessary to a clear understand- 
ing. 

The plants must not be allowed to lie on 

' Rep. Cong. Com., p. 51. 



AXD USE IX UXITED STATES. 5 1 

the ground, but must be at once gathered 
into sheaves, and stacked, as the fibre may 
be injured by the heat of the sun, or the 
seed by dampness. When the seed is dry, 
the next process is " rippHng," or remov- 
ing the seed. This can be done by hand 
or by machine, care being taken to keep 
the stalks straight. This, of course, pre- 
vents the use of the threshing-machine, 
and consequently the small farmer must 
do it by hand. 

The next process, which is termed " ret- 
ting " or rotting, is the one by which the 
fibre is so loosened from the wood, as to 
be easily removable.' The process requires 
great skill and experience, and, if unskil- 
fully done, will injure or entirely ruin the 
fibre. The retting is a fermentation of 
the gummy substance that binds the fibre 
to the wood, and is accomplished by ex- 
posure of the flax to the dew in the fields, 
or by immersing it in water. The former 
process is the most common in this coun- 

' See Rep. Dept. Ag. 1879, PP- 5^9~59°> for a more detailed 
account of this process. 



52 FLAX CULTURE 

try, as requiring less labor and trouble ; 
but the latter process is used abroad, and 
is the only process by which really good 
flax can be made. The flax must be kept 
entirely under water, and yet must not 
rest on the bottom. Soft water is the 
best, in ponds or slowly running streams. 
Retting pools are constructed, twelve or 
more feet lono-, six feet wide, and four feet 
deep. The flax is laid carefully in rows, 
with the roots all pointing one way. In 
a short time fermentation sets in, and 
bubbles of foul-smelling gases rise to the 
surface. This process occupies from five 
to ten days, according to the weather, 
coarse fibre taking longer than fine. The 
retting should be carefully watched, and 
when thought to be completed, the flax 
should be tested every few hours, as the 
change for the worse is very rapid. If 
the retting continues too long, the fibre is 
rendered weak and cottony ; if not long 
enough, it is dry and coarse, and much 
of it is knocked away in the later pro- 
cesses. The flax is then removed from 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 53 

the pools, and in this operation too much 
care cannot be used. Hooks or pitch- 
forks injure the fibre, and the bundles 
must be handed out by a man standing 
in the now disgusting- pool. In fact, the 
water in the pool forms an excellent liquid 
manure, and is sometimes strong enough 
to kill fish, when allowed to escape into 
the stream. The bundles are drained on 
the bank, and then carefully spread out to 
dry, evenly and thinly over the grass, the 
flax being occasionally turned with long 
wooden poles. When the plant is thor- 
oughly dry, it is again gathered into 
bundles and housed. 

It is evident that this retting process 
requires great care and skill. Repeated 
attempts have been made to expedite the 
process with hot water or steam, but none 
have been successful, or able to supply the 
place of water retting. Much of the value 
of the flax depends on the retting, and the 
quality of the water used has much to do 
with the success of the operation. Thus 
flax retted in the river Lys in Belgium 



54 FLAX CULTURE 

brings twenty-five per cent more in price 
than flax grown on equafly fertile soil and 
retted in France. There is no other place 
in Europe where the same quality is ob- 
tained, and it is not improbable that there 
is no water in America that has the pecul- 
iar chemical qualities of the Lys.' 

The next process in the preparation of 
the flax for market is the "scutching," or 
removal of the woody pith. This is accom- 
plished by breaking and beating the flax, 
when the wood drops out, and the fibre is 
left. This ma\- l)e done by hand or by 
machine. The operation, when performed 
by hand, is very dirty and disagreeable, 
but is a necessity unless there is a flax-mill 
close by, as the scutching machine is an 
expensive piece of machinery. 

The last process is the " hackling," a 
combing process, by which the chaff and 
short tow are removed, and the long, clean 
flax fibre left ready for spinning. This 
process also is performed either by hand 
or machine, but mostly by hand, even in 
large mills. 

' Rep. Tar. Com., p. 1526. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 55 

The reasons why the American farmer 
does not grow fine flax are now apparent. 
The farmer who has sufficient intelhgence 
to cultivate flax, does not care to send his 
wife and children to weed the flax field on 
hands and knees. He himself is accus- 
tomed to do his farming- with improved 
machinery. He ploughs, sows, reaps, binds, 
threshes, etc., all by machine. Labor is 
expensive, and he cannot afford, nor is he 
accustomed, to employ sufficient skilled 
labor to go into a culture that requires so 
much hand-work. Nor does he have the 
time or patience to acquire the special 
knowledge and manipulative skill of the 
manufacturer. These difficulties have been 
repeatedly stated in the Agricultural Re- 
ports. For instance, here is a quotation 
from the Report of the Department of 
Agriculture in 1864 : " But flax growing in 
this country has its drawbacks at the pres- 
ent time. First, the farmer lives thirty 
miles or upwards from where he could bring 
his flax to market : what is he to do in the 
event of growing such a crop ? Where is 



56 FLAX CULTURE 

he to get it broke or scutched ? Should 
he contract with a man cominof alono- with 
his machine, who works for him, he must 
submit to his exorbitant charge which 
would take away half the profit of his crop. 
This is not all. Although his flax has got 
into small bulk by scutching, even if he 
has to send a great distance to market, he 
is still at the mercy of the buyer, who prob- 
ably would tell him that it got too much 
rotting, find some other faults, and finally 
say it would not suit him. The farmer 
gets bewildered, thinks of the long jour- 
ney home, calculates his expenses, offers 
his flax at a reduced price sooner than 
bring it back, and lastly w'ill sicken of flax 
growing." ' 

The same thinof is said more in detail in 
the Report for 1877: "Among the obsta- 
cles in the way of profitably growing the 
fibre are the following: First, the want of 
a regular and accessible market. Second, 
the labor involved in pulling flax on a 
large scale is greater than can be secured 

' Rep. Dept. Ag. 1864, p. 183. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 57 

at the proper season at wages which will 
leave any margin of profit. Third, the 
process of ' rotting ' or eliminating the 
fibre from the stalk in the old-fashioned 
way is tedious, and thought to be un- 
healthy. Fourth, most farmers do not suf- 
ficiently understand the rotting part of this 
process, and are therefore very liable to 
injure the fibre by some failure either in 
method or degree. Fifth, the processes 
of breaking, scutching, or hackling by 
hand are very disagreeable, necessarily 
involving the operator in an atmosphere 
thick with dust and dirt, and yet requiring 
skilled workmen, such as it is often quite 
impracticable to secure."' "In the Ohio 
Valley there is objection to flax on the 
score of injury to the soil. ' It is hard on 
the land,' is a common remark of corre- 
spondents."^ 

Besides all this, American flax is seldom 
prepared twice alike. No two growers 
seem to seek the same standard. In 

' Rep. Dept. Ag. 1877, p. 183. 
^ Rep. Dept. Ag. 1885, p. 417. 



5 8 FLAX CULTURE 

Russia, on the other hand, all flax ex- 
ported is subjected to government in- 
spection, which establishes regular and 
uniform trades of flax. The manufac- 
turer, therefore, prefers the imported flax, 
though it costs a third more.' The Report 
for 1879 emphasizes the point that flax 
culture " is, in one sense, a trade to be 
thoroughly learned, and followed after it 
is acquired." 

The question naturally arises, that if 
this is all true, why is it that the Flax and 
Hemp Spinners and Growers' Association 
persist in asking for the retention of the 
duty? This question can receive no satis- 
factory answer. A hint may perhaps be 
gotten from some of the testimony before 
the Tariff Commission. 

We have already had some instructive 
quotations from the testimony of Mr. 
Hiram Sisson, who represented the flax- 
growing industry. As a grower, his 
evidence is of value. 

' Rep. Dept. Ag. 1879, p. 573. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 59 

Q. How much duty are you asking to be put on 
imported flax? 

A. The duty is $20 a ton now. We only ask 
to increase it to ^30 a ton. On what is called 
hackled flax, it is now $40 a ton, and we want that 
increased to $50 a ton. This is a kind of conpromise 
between the niani/facturers and the growe7-s of flax. 
We have already agreed to this arrangeirtent, so that 
it will give tliem a little p7-otection and its a little. 

Q. This increase of duty, $10 a ton, which you 
ask, you assume would bring this flax that is now 
burned to the manufacturer? 

A. It would be a help in that direction, although 
it would not be very much help. All the flax that 
comes in here frotn fot'eign countries would, under 
such an increase of duty, cost the manufacturers a 
half a cent a pound more than it does 7ww. 

Q. That is to say, $10 a ton additional duty 
would enable the manufacturers to buy American 
flax to advantage ? 

A. It would help. We would like to have the 
duty more, but I don't know that we can get that 
done.' 

It is unnecessary to point out what non- 
sense this all is ; but the instructive thing 
about it is that the Flax and Hemp Spin- 

' Rep. Tar. Com., pp. 283, 2S4. 



6o FLAX CULTURE 

ners' Association favor protection for that 
somewhat mythical personage, the grower 
of flax fibre, on account of a compromise 
arrangement by which their own protec- 
tion is secured. 

The American Flax and Hemp Spinners' 
and Growers' Association would have in- 
creased the surplus in the treasury by 
$58,825 in 1887 if this increase had been 
adopted, and they are unable to show any 
benefit to accrue from this tax to any 
domestic interest. Even Mr. Sisson ad- 
mits that " it would not be much help." 
If, then, an increase of fifty per cent in the 
duty on raw llax " would not be much 
help," why retain the present duty, which, 
so far as can be ascertained, is no help at 
all? 

There are linen-manufacturers, however, 
not connected with the Spinners' and 
Growers' Association, and not, therefore, 
under the spell of such sophistry ; and a 
most fitting summing-up of this whole 
discussion is to be found in the recom- 
mendations and suggestions to the Tariff 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 6 1 

Commission, of Messrs, Finlayson, Bous- 
field, & Co., flax spinners at Grafton, 
Mass. They say in substance : ' — 

1. Flax is not grown in America to any 
extent for textile manufacturing purposes. 
The bulk of it is produced only for seed, 
the fibre being destroyed. None is pro- 
duced of a quality high enough for fine 
linen thread or yarns. 

2. The manufacture of linen does not 
receive any encouragement by having raw 
material of sufficient quality grown on the 
spot. It would not develop, but cease to 
exist, unless supplied with material from 
abroad. 

3. The development of the manufac- 
ture is the only means of encouraging 
the production of superior flax. The 
market must be created for the farmer, or 
he will not attempt the growth of a crop 
requiring care and skill. 

4. The manufacture of linen can best 
be encouraged by the introduction of 

' Rep. Tar. Com., p. 1526. 



62 FLAX CULTURE 

the raw material, whether dressed or un- 
dressed, free of duty ; and with this devel- 
opment the farmer will in time find a 
profitable market open to him. 

5. The quality of the fibre is so depend- 
ent on favorable conditions of soil, climate, 
and water, that it is questionable if any 
one country can produce the entire range 
of qualities of flax necessary for the manu- 
facture of linen thread and fine linen. 

6. Even under the most favorable cir- 
cumstances, many years must elapse before 
the American farmer can acquire the requi- 
site skill to produce fine fiax. 

7. The manufacturers must have qziality 
at any cost. 

This admirable summary, made by intel- 
ligent manufacturers, states the whole sit- 
uation, and suggests the true remedy for 
the existing difficulties. The Western 
farmer does not raise flax for fibre, because 
he has no market for it, the few flax-mills 
being all in a narrow compass on the 
Eastern seaboard ; and the fate of the 



AA'D USE IN UNITED STATES. 63 

American Linen Company, the Williman- 
tic Linen Company, and other concerns 
of large capital, which failed in an attempt 
to manufacture linens, largely on account 
of their inability to get cheap raw material, 
is a sufficient warning to any but the bold- 
est, not to establish any more linen-mills 
here. The farmer does not raise flax, be- 
cause there is no home-market for it, and 
there are few mills to create a market. 
If the duty on raw flax of every descrip- 
tion were wholly removed, a stimulus 
would be given to the linen-manufacture 
in America ; competition would then be 
encouraged, and the consequent demand 
for flax would be an incentive to the 
farmer that no duty can supply. With 
flax-mills springing up in all sections of 
the country, a ready market would be pro- 
vided for the farmer. His attention is 
more likely to be directed to the niceties 
of flax culture, should he receive the direct 
encouragement of domestic manufacturers 
to grow fine flax. At any rate, it is diffi- 
cult to see what interest will be injured 



64 FLAX CULTURE 

by the removal of the duty on raw flax, 
dressed and undressed. 

In spite of the present duty, the Hnen 
industry of America, having an invested 
capital of ten milhons, imports annually 
nearly two million dollars worth of the 
raw material, and from that source the 
surplus in the treasury was increased by 
over a hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
in 1887 ; and yet the production of Ameri- 
can fibre is steadily falling off. Instead of 
manufacturing our own linen goods, we 
are importing over fifteen million dollars 
worth per annum. How much of this 
could be manufactured in this country if 
the manufacturers could import their raw 
material of every kind, free of duty, may 
be left for future determination. With the 
present duty on raw flax, however, it is 
idle to expect the manufacturer to risk his 
capital in an enterprise where so many 
wealthy corporations have failed. 

Enougfh has been said to show the bur- 
den of this tax on the domestic manufac- 
turer, and its uselessness, nay, direct 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 65 

injury, to the grower ; but a few words 
more are necessary in defining what is 
raw flax. A curious distinction was in- 
vented in 1870, between the " scutched " 
flax, from which the woody fibre has been 
revoved by hand or machine, and the 
"hackled" flax, which has undergone a 
further process of combing to remove the 
chaff and tow. For some unexplained 
reason, the duty on "hackled" flax is 
double that on the " scutched " product. 
It can hardly be because one is regarded 
as a manufactured product ; as both have 
been subjected to mechanical operations, 
differing only in degree. 

It is not easy to frame a definition of 
"raw material" to cover all cases; but it 
may be roughly defined as material that 
requires some further mechanical process 
to fit it for use by the consumer, it being 
of no use to the consumer in its existing 
condition. Under this definition, flax is 
still raw material until it is manufactured 
into thread, or yarn at least. This defini- 
tion applies equally well to cotton and 



66 FLAX CULTURE 

silk, and no one ever thought of calHng 
ginned cotton a manufactured product, to 
be taxed at a rate different from unofinned. 
In fact, to draw a rough parallel between 
flax and cotton, if it were the custom to 
gather the cotton-plant, the removal of 
the fibre from the boll would correspond 
to the " scutching ;" and the ginning, which 
removes the seed, to the subsequent 
" hacklinor." Yet ginned cotton is univer- 
sally admitted to be a raw material. So, 
too, with silk ; the eggs of the silkworm, 
the cocoons, the silk reeled from the co- 
coon, are all admitted free of duty. In 
the tariff of 1846, a duty of fifteen per 
cent was imposed on reeled silk, while the 
cocoons were admitted free, but that need- 
less distinction has long ago been repealed. 
The maintenance of this distinction be- 
tween " scutched " and " hackled " flax 
can only be a burden on the manufac- 
turer. It were just as reasonable to 
compel the Northern cotton-mill to gin its 
cotton, as to force every American flax- 
mill to hackle European flax. 



AND USE IN UNITED STATES. 6/ 

The foreeoinCT considerations should be 
sufficient to convince the candid reader 
that the proposal to place tlax on the 
"free list" is a reasonable one. The re- 
moval of duties on raw flax will be an in- 
centive to the linen industry in America, 
that free-traders and protectionists can 
alike welcome. To retain the duty on 
flax of any kind, is not protection. 



FLAX CULTURE AS INFLUENCED 
BY LEGISLATION. 



It has been said that the present pros- 
perous condition of the flax and hnen 
industries in Great Britain is due to the 
careful legislative protection granted to 
those industries a hundred years ago when 
they were in their infancy ; and that the 
maintenance of the duty on flax will have 
a similar tendency to build up the linen 
industry in America. The foregoing pages 
of this volume are a sufficient answer to 
this assertion ; but it will be of value to 
sketch more in detail the legislative pro- 
tection and encouragement that has been 
given flax growing in Great Britain, and 
contrast with it the very similar measures 
that have from time to time been adopted 
in the various Colonies in America. Vari- 
ous statutes are cited at length in order 
to show the extent of leQrislative care, and 



AS /NFL CHEATED BY LEGISLATION. 69 

they are well worch reading. The facts as 
to the history in America are taken mainly 
from Bishop's " History of American Man- 
ufactures," a standard work published in 
1 86 1. The source of the information as 
to Great Britain is the work of a Scotch 
linen merchant, Alex. J. Warden, entitled 
" The Linen Trade, Ancient and Modern " 
(London, 1864). 

Great Britain. 

By the statute of 24 Henry VIIL; chap. 
4, in 1532, it was enacted that, — 

" Every person having in his occupation threescore 
acres of land apt for tillage, shall sow one rood with 
flax or hemp- seed, upon pain to forfeit three shillings 
fourpence for every forty acres." 

And elsewhere fines paid for non-com- 
pliance with this law are recorded. In 
1562 this statute was re-enacted, with the 
amount of land to be sown in flax increased 
to an acre, and the penalty to five pounds ; 
and it was not until 1593, after sixty years 
of protection, that these statutes were re- 
pealed, because they failed to accomplish 



70 FLAX CULTURE 

the desired result. In i66S, almost a hun- 
dred years after, " England was almost 
wholly supplied with linens from France." ' 
In 1 73 I Parliament passed an Act that may 
be commended to modern legislators, 
preamble and all. It is entitled, — 

" An Act for further encouraging the manufacture 
of British sailcloth. 

" Whereas the wealth and prosperity o( this king- 
dom does very much depend upon the preservation 
and improvement of its manufactures, and whereas 
the manufacture of sailcloth does give a comfortal)le 
support ... to many of his Majesty's subjects em- 
ployed in the same, and there is reason to believe that 
it would 1)6 greatly improved in this kingdom, and 
the exportation of it to foreign ports considerably 
increased, if the duties payable upon the importation 
of rough and undressed tlax . . . were taken off; 
therefore ... be it enacted . . . That from and after 
the 24th day of June, 1731, it shall and may be lawful 
for any person or i)ersons whatsoever to import into 
this kingdom any tiuantity of rough or undressed flax, 
without paying any subsidy, custom, imposition, or 
other duty whatsoever for the same." 

Thus it appears, that, at the time when 
England was maintaining a protective tariff, 

' The Linen Trade, p. 363. 



A S INFL L 'ENCED B V LEG/SLA TIOX. 7 [ 

it was deemed important to admit raw flax 
free of duty. Section four of the same 
Act increased the bounty on sailcloth ex- 
ported. The cultivation of flax was, how- 
ever, not neglected by Parliament ; for in 
1766 the sum of /^ 15, 000 annually ($75,- 
000) was set apart from the import duties 
on linen "as a fund for the encourage- 
ment of raising and dressing hemp and 
flax in this kingdom." Three years later 
this amount of ^15,000 was apportioned, 
^8,000 to England, and /7,ooo to Scot- 
land. The amount for England was in- 
creased in 1 78 1, by stat. 21, Geo. III., 
chap. 58, § 3' — 

" That for the encouragement of the growth of hemp 
and flax in . . . England there shall be applied . . • 
in bounties yearly a sum not exceeding ^15,000, . . . 
at the rate of fourpence per stone for every stone of 
flax weighing fourteen pounds to be raised in . . . 
England in the year 17S2, and in every subsequent 
year, for the space of five years, and which shall be 
broken and properly prepared for market." 

This munificent appropriation should 
have increased the production of flax ; but 



72 FLAX Ci'LTL'RE 

Mr. Warden states that for fifteen years 
no one claimed a premium in England, 
and but few in Scotland ; and he cites as 
his authority the thirteenth Report of the 
Commissioners for Examining- the Public 
Accounts, dated March i8, 1785/ 

Compulsion and boimties have alike 
been unavailing to turn the attention of the 
English farmer to l]ax-gro\ving ; and Mr, 
Warden, writing in 1864, says' that "at 
the present time, the quantity ot llax grown 
in Iingland is insignificantly small. Many 
counties produce none at all. Dorset 
. . . and a few others grow small quanti- 
ties, and in certain portions of Yorkshire 
a little more attention is paid to the culti- 
vation ; and although the quality of what 
is raised is good, the quantity is very 
much less than it ouQfht to be." He oroes 
on to quote from the annual report of 
Mr. Baker, a factory inspector, who says, 
" We can neither produce from abroad (?) 
nor induce our farmers to grow the raw 
material in sufficient quantity. The same 

' P- 11-- ' PP- 37>S 379- 



AS INFL UENCED B V LEG/SLA TION. "J I 

complaint is made in the Federal States 
of America, where the production has fallen 
off enormously." This reads much like 
the quotations from our own agricultural 
reports. Of Scotland Mr. Warden says,' 
" At one period a very large quantity of 
flax was raised in Scotland ; but the culti- 
vation has gradually decreased, until it is 
now all but extinct in many counties. In 
1812 about 5,000 acres were grown, worth, 
at ^^20 an acre, /^ 100,000. In 1834 great 
complaints were made about the growth 
of flax at home having ceased." He adds 
the following statement of the decrease in 
acreage of flax in Scotland : — 





Acres 




Acres 


Year. 


IN Flax. 


Year. 


IN Fla.V. 


1854 . 


. 6,670 


1856 . 


. 2,723 


1S55 • 


• 3.461 


1857 • 


• 1,534 



Like American writers, Mr. Warden de- 
plores this decrease in flax-growing, proves 
the profitableness of the crop, and urges 
the farmer to an increased production of 
flax. 

This brief review of the history of flax- 

' p. 439- 



74 FLAX CULTURE 

ofrowlno- in Eno-land and Scotland strength- 
ens the position taken in the body of the 
book, that flax-growing- for fibre is a trade 
to be learned, and cannot be successfully 
followed without much care-taking and 
patience. The British and American 
farmers dislike the trade ; and compulsion, 
bounties, and duties are none of them 
sufficient to induce a ireneral cultivation. 

Whether or not the various bounties 
and duties on linens stimulated the pro- 
duction of cloth, and contributed to the 
present status of the linen industry in 
Great Britain, is a question outside the 
present inquiry. We are now concerned 
merely with the inquir)- as to the effect 
of bounties and duties on fiax-growing, 
and it is certain that at the present day 
the British linen-mills are largely supplied 
with the raw material imported from for- 
eign countries. 

In Ireland the course of development 
was somewhat different. The climate there 
is well adapted to the growing of flax and 
the bleachino- of linen ; but the linen Indus- 



A S I NFL UENCED B Y LEG I SLA TION. 7 5 

try there has been stimulated by the course 
of the EngHsh Government, in vigorously 
discouraeine all other branches of manu- 
facture except linen. At the end of the 
seventeenth century Parliament restricted 
the exportation of all woollen goods from 
Ireland except to England, where pro- 
hibitory duties were laid on their importa- 
tion. This action ruined the woollen trade 
in Ireland. Several thousand manufac- 
turers left the kingdom, and some ot the 
southern and western districts were almost 
depopulated.' The course of England was 
doubtless influenced by the fact that the 
Protestants in the North of Ireland were 
engaged in the linen industry, while the 
Catholic part of the population was mostly 
enofaofed in other industries. About this 
time an Act of Parliament allowed flax and 
linen produced in Ireland to be imported 
into England free of duty (stat. 7, 8, Wil- 
liam III., chap. 39). This stimulated the 
growth of flax ; and for several }-ears 
^20,000 was appropriated annually to 

' The Linen Trade, p. 391. 



1^ 



FLAX CULTURE 



cncoura_L;c tlu; industry. Mucli \vas done 
by \va\- of bcnintic^s, hut mostly for the 
])rodiiction of liiu'ii cloths ; \(^t ior some 
reason no mill lor the s|)innino; and 
weavinLi" of linen 1))' machincn'y was erected 
in Ireland until some forty )ears alter 
similar mills had been put in operation in 
l{n_L;land.' 

This o-eiUM'ous assistance from the? R'o^'- 
crnment, conlinuetl lor more than a hun- 
dred years, does not set'm to ha\e been 
cntireh' successful. Mr. W'ardtMi oives 
tables showini;- the acreage! of llax in Irc- 
Luul, and also the imports of raw llax, 
^vhich are worth summarizinp- : — 



YlAKS. 


AcKi:s Sown. 


Vi:.\KS. 


Ac 


<iis Sown. 


1815 


. 148,124 


1S50 


. 


91,040 


1 8 20 


. i4'^.5'^4 


1855 




97^075 


1S25 


. i^V)-4'- 


1 860 




i--^»595 



The imports of raw llax into Belfast 
were as tollows : — 



ViAi;. 

1848 
1851 
1S54 



'Jons. 


Ykai;. 


Tons. 


4.665 


1858 . 


. 7,816 


7- '55 


1802 . 


. 10,965 


8,980 







The l.inru Tiadc, 



40-^• 



AS INFLUENCED BY LEGISLATION. 7/ 

Mr. Warden goes on to say that " the 
linen trade in Ireland has progressed very 
rapidly of late years, but it might have 
extended still faster had the supply of the 
raw material been more abundant," " The 
great hindrance to the more extensive cul- 
tivation of (lax," he says, " is the ignorance 
and [)rejudice of the farmers." He rec- 
ommends the spinners and merchants to 
take action to instruct the farmers, and 
root out their prejudices, and quotes from 
the "Trade Circular" for 1862, that the 
want of a low-priced scutchlng-machine 
is a serious obstacle; to (lax culture. 
" Surely," he says, " the intelligcmce, the 
skill, and the wealth of Ireland, will 
speedily overcome this difficulty, and i)ro- 
duce a low-priced, i)orlable scutching-ma- 
chine that will do the work cheaj^ly, yet 
efficiently." This all reads like an agri- 
cultural report of the United States, or an 
annual report of the Flax and Hem[) Spin- 
ners' and Growers' Association ; but it 
hardly bears out the theory that an import 
duty on raw (lax will induce or encourage 



78 FLAX CULTURE 

farmers to raise llax for fibre, or justify 
those who are clamoring" for the reten- 
tion of the duty on flax, in pointing to 
the success of Enghsh protective meas- 
ures in supplying the home-market with 
domestic flax. It is a consideration worthy 
of note also, that, in spite of this govern- 
mental protection to linen in Ireland, llax- 
o-rowing has not enriched the people who, 
under the fosterino- care of England, have 
become almost a nation of paupers. 

The United States. 

This digression into the history of flax- 
growing in Great Britain has led us away 
from the examination of the comparison 
of the protective legislation in England 
and America. As a matter of fact, during 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
while EnHand was ofrantincr bounties and 
compelling the growing of flax, the Eng- 
lish Colonies were doing the same thing in 
the same wa)', and, in some cases, on a much 
larger scale. They also received material 
aid from the mother country, which was 



A S I NFL UENCED BY L EG IS LA TION. 79 

always ready to encourage the production 
and exportation to England of raw mate- 
rials for manufacture. Thus, in 1764, Par- 
liament granted a bounty of eight pounds 
per ton on all rough flax imported into 
England from the American Colonies. 
This, taking into account the value of 
money at that time, is considerably more 
than the present duty imposed by our gov- 
ernment on imports of dressed flax. In 
1 77 1 the bounty was decreased to six 
pounds per ton, and it remained at that 
figure until commercial intercourse was in- 
terrupted by the Revolution.' In 1703 a 
similar bounty of six pounds per ton was 
allowed on the importation of hemp ; and 
the Assembly of Pennsylvania, in 1730, 
increased this by an additional bounty of 
three half-pence per pound.' 

Massachusetts gave early attention to 
flax culture. In 1639 it was enacted in 
Plymouth, — 

"That every householder within the Governmen' 
shall sowe one rodd of ground square at least with 

' The Linen Trade, p. 369. ^ i Bishop, p. 336. 



80 FLAX CULTURE 

hemp or flax yearely, and some one in every Towne to 
ba appoynted to see the same donn, and present it 
to the Court in June yearely." ' 

In the next year it was further en- 
acted, — 

" That all such person or persons as have sowed any 
hempe or flaxe according to the former act of the 
Court, shall not waste the same but shall dress the 
said hemp or flax, or procure it to be dressed fitt for 
some good use, and preserve the seed ; and the Com- 
ittees of the several Townes shall see the same soe 
donn the week before the Eleccon Court, and to 
make report thereof to the Court, upon penalty of five 
shillings to be forfaited to the Colony's use for every 
delin(iuent therein." - 

This is a reminiscence of the statute of 
Henry the Eighth. In the same year the 
Colony of Massachusetts Bay granted a 
bounty of three pence on every shilhng's 
worth of Hnen cloth of the erowth of the 
province " for the incuragment of the 
manifocture," but this was repealed within 
a )ear "because too burthensome to the 
country," but not until some bounties had 

' Plymouth Colony Laws, p. 63. ■ //vV, p. 6S. 



A S I NFL UENCED B V LEG /SLA TION. 8 1 

been paid.' In 1656 it was ordered that 
every family should spin some flax ; and 
the Act prescribed minutely the number of 
pounds to be spun by each family accord- 
ing to its ability, and imposed a penalty of 
twelve pence for every pound short. 

In 1728 a considerable bounty was 
offered for flax-growing by an Act enti- 
tled, — 

" An Act for encouraging the raising of flax within 
this province. - 

" § I. That from and after the pubhcation of this 
Act, for the encouragement of the manufacturers of 
canvas and cordage, there shall be paid out of the 
public treasury the sum of iS shillings and 8 pence 
for every one hundred and twelve pounds of water- 
rotted, well-cured, and clean-dressed flax of the growth 
of this province. 

"§5. That if any one shall bring to the market 
the quantity of two hundred and twenty-four pounds 
weight of flax, he shall be allowed 4 shillings and 8 
pence per hundred over and above what is before 
allowed by this Act. 

" § 7. This Act to continue ... for the space of 
five years." 

When this Act expired, it was renewed 
with a larger bounty, and a recognition of 

' I Bishop, p. 299. • Province Laws, 172S, chap. 7. 



82 FLAX CULTURE 

the superiority of water-rotted over dew- 
rotted flax. 

" § I. That . . . there shall be paid out of the pub- 
lick treasury the sum of . . . 37 shillings and 4 pence 
for every 112 pounds of 7t:'(?/r;-rotted, well-cured, and 
clean-dressed flax, and 18 shillings and 8 pence for 
every 112 pounds of ^/(7£/-rotted, well-cured, and clean- 
dressed flax, of the growth of this province. 

"§ 5. That if any person shall bring to the sur- 
veyor the quantity of 224 pounds of hemp or flax 
... he shall be allowed . . . for water-rotted flax, 9 
shillings and 4 pence, and for dew-rotted flax, 4 shil- 
lings and 8 pence a hundred, over and above what is 
before allowed in this Act. 

" § 6. This Act to continue . . . for . . . three 
years." ' 

By this Act a bounty of $225 per ton, 
reckoning money at its present value, was 
granted, — a sum far in excess of the 
bounty offered by England in 17S1 of four 
pence per stone (equal to $12.80 per ton), 
and five or six times as much as the present 
duty on dressed llax imported to this 
country, with results eqtially meagre. 

In 1722, and at other times, premiums 

' Province Laws, 1734, chap. 15. 



W S I NFL UEAXED BY LEG I SLA TIO\. 8 3 

were granted for linen cloth ; but this 
inquiry is not so much concerned with the 
growth of the cloth industry, as with 
the production of the raw material, but 
in the early history of the Colonies the two 
are intimately connected, as, unlike Eng- 
land, the only source of flax was the home 
supply. A large brick spinning-school was 
erected in Boston ; and the Massachusetts 
Assembly, in 1737, imposed a tax on car- 
riages and other luxuries, for its mainte- 
nance,' and in 1753 the Assembly appro- 
priated fifteen hundred pounds annually to 
aid the society in charge of the school.^ 
In 1770 a further appropriation was made 
for the school, and a large fund was raised 
by private subscription. It would be tedi- 
ous to enumerate the many other meas- 
ures taken in Massachusetts to encourage 
the raisingf of flax, the Sfovernment, even, 
at one time (1737) taking flax in payment 
of taxes, at the rate of six pence a 
pound. 3 

Connecticut was not behind Massachu- 

' I r.ishop, p. 333. = Ibid, p. 346. 3 jf,ij^ p_ .^^_ 



84 FLAX CULTURE 

setts, as an entry in the colonial records 
in 1640 reads : — 

" Whereas )t is obserued as experience hath made 
appeare that much grownd w'^^in these hberties may 
be well improued in hempe and flaxe, and that we 
might in tyme haue supj)ly of lynnen cloath amongst 
o''se!ves ... it is Ordered that . . . every family that 
keeps a Teeme . . . shall sow ... at lest on rood 
of hempe or flaxe ... or in default thereof are to 
vndergoe the censure of the Courte." ' 

In 1725 the exclusive right to make 
canvas in the province was granted to 
Richard Rogers." 

In Virginia, strenuous efforts were made 
to promote the cultivation of flax. In 
1673 an Act was passed for the encourage- 
ment of flax-growing, and the develop- 
ment of the home market. It reads ; — 

" An Act for the advancement of the Manufactory 
of fflax and hempe. 

" Forasmuch as it conduceth to the well being of 
any country that the necessities thereof be supplyed 
from their own industry within themselves, and that 
the lesse they have occasion for from abroad, the lesse 
will be their dependance on forreigne supplies whereof 

' Colonial Records of Connecticut, p. 6r. - i ISi^hop, p. 335. 



A S I NFL UENCED B Y LEG I SLA TION. 8 5 

the calamity of warr and other accidents may prevent 
them ; and whereas this assembly takeing into their 
serious consideration the low and contemptable price 
we are allowed for our tobaccoes, occasioned cheifly 
by the greate quantityes yearely made, hath thought 
fitt, if it may be to abate from the quantity by ad- 
vancing the more usefuU and necessary manifactory 
of fflax and hempe, and in order thereunto have 
enacted . . . that the respective County Courts with- 
in this colony doe, at the cost and charge of their 
counties . . . procure one quart of fliax and one 
quart of hempe seed for every tythable person . . . 
and cause the same to be distributed amongst the in- 
habitants, and that the courts failing to procure the 
said fflax and hempe seed ... be lined five thou- 
sand pounds of tobacco : And it is further enacted 
. . . that every tythable [person] . . . doe make, or 
cause to be made, one pound of drest fflax and one 
pound of drest hempe, or two pounds of either, and 
soe yearly and every year, under the penalty of fifty 
pounds of tobacco for every pound of ffiax or hempe 
neglected to be made as aforesaid . . . and for the 
better discovery of such neglect that . . . tythables 
at the time of laying the levy . . . deliver upon oath 
that it is of his owne growth." ' 

This Act does not appear to have been 
fully successful in causing flax to be 
grown, and it was apparently evaded, as 

■ 2 Hen. Stat., p. 316. 



86 FLAX Cl'LlCRE 

in 16S2 a subsequent Act gave one-half 
of the penaky of fifty pounds of tobacco 
to the informer ; and as a further stimulus 
the Act provided : — 

" That what person or persons soever shall by his 
industry out of his own growth and manufacture work 
up his fflax and hempe fitt for the spindle ... for 
every pound so wrought up, either of fflax or hempe, 
he, or they, shall be allowed two pounds of tobacco 
for his or their encouragements by the publique." ' 

The Act went on to allow a bounty of 
six pounds of tobacco for every ell of linen 
cloth, three-quarters of a yard wide, made 
from such flax. 

In spite however of the fine burst of 
patriotism and protection in the preamble 
of the Act of 1673, the Assembly of Yir- 
einia felt obliged to repeal these laws. 
After reciting in the preamble of the Act 
the various bounties given and penalties 
imposed, they say, — 

..." which said encouragements . . . are found 
to be rather a charge and inconvenience, then any 
benefitt to the pulilique, the charge thereby accumu- 
lated likely to be great, and the effect of transposi- 

' 2 Hen. Stat., p. 503. 



A S I NFL UENCED BY L EG IS LA TION. 8 7 

tion of tobacco through officers hands and much 
thereof thereby exhausted ; and the persons them- 
selves to whome the encouragements are thereby due, 
desiring to relinquish all their claimes, and the same 
being so represented to this assembly, finding suffi- 
cient encouragement by the benefitt received of their 
labours to promote and propagate soe beneficial 
manufactures." • 

After which follows the repealing clause. 

Bounties were again offered in Virginia 
in 1775.^ 

The Assembly of Rhode Island granted 
considerable aid to William Borden in the 
manufacture of canvas and duck. In 1722 
he was granted a bounty of twenty shil- 
lings on each bolt manufactured for ten 
years; and in 1725 he was granted five 
hundred pounds a year for three years 
from the general treasury, " if there be so 
much to spare." Not content with this 
generous provision, he applied for and re- 
ceived in 1728 a loan of three thousand 
pounds, without interest, for ten years ; and 
the bounty of twenty shillings per bolt was 
continued.^ In 1731, 1735, and 1 751, Acts 

' 3 Hen. Stat., p. 16. - i Bishop, p. 3S2. ' Ibid, p. 334. 



88 FLAX CULTURE 

were passed granting bounties and pre- 
miums for llax raised in the province ; but 
the colonial records, as reprinted, do not 
contain copies of these acts. Notwith- 
standing" all this, there was in 1767 scarce 
flax enough raised to supply the spinners/ 

In 1765 New Jersey granted bounties 
on the raising of llax and hemp, and in 
1766 the bounties were continued until 
1772 ; but these Acts are printed only by 
title in the collection of Statutes.- 

In Pennsylvania, besides several Acts of 
the Assembly for the promotion of flax 
culture, a society composed of many influ- 
ential men of the province was formed in 
1764, to encourage the manufacture of 
linen. Large preniiums were offered for 
the raw material and manufacture, among 
which were premiums of thirty pounds to 
ten pounds for the greatest amount of flax 
raised by one farmer, and fifteen pounds 
to five pounds for the greatest quantity 
on one acre.^ 

' I r.ishop, p. 373. 

- Acts of General Assembly of New Jersey, 1702-1776, pp. 
2S1 and 313. 

^ I Bishop, p. 367. 



AS INFLUENCED BY LEGISLATION. 89 

A similar society in New York, gave gen- 
erous encouragement to domestic industry 
for a number of years, but the Nortli-River 
industry in New York seems to have been 
beofun at a much later date, at a time when 
flax-raising had no legislative protection/ 

In some Colonies the local authorities 
took steps to encourage the industry ; and 
Annapolis and Baltimore in Maryland, in 
1 73 1, both offered premiums for linen 
cloth made of flax grown in the Colony. 

It is thus evident, that, while England 
was encouraging the production of flax at 
home by protective measures, her Colonies 
were quite as active in their own behalf; 
and it is also clear that the governments of 
Great Britain and America have not been 
successful in inducing; the farmers to erow 
flax for fibre by any system of duties, 
bounties, or penalties. It is also to be ob- 
served, that flax-oTowing- has had as much 
protection granted it in this country as by 
Great Britain ; and that while the protec- 
tion granted by the latter country was long 
ago removed, raw flax having been placed 
on the free list as early as 1731, notwith- 

' 2 Bishop, p. 205. 



90 FLAX CCLTCRE. 

Standing- a much larger product than ever 
attained here, in America the protective 
duties still exist. Is not the burden on 
those who ask for the retention of the 
duty, to show what there is to be pro- 
tected, to come forward with facts and 
ficrures showinor the number and location 
of the rtax-g-rowers, and the amount of 
their annual product, and the extent of the 
benefit that accrues to such growers from 
the duty ? Is it not also incumbent on 
them to show that the imposition of the 
duties has increased tlax-growing, or even 
prevented it from decreasing ? In short, 
is not the burden of proof on them to 
show that the benefit resulting from the 
duty on raw flax outweighs the manifest 
injury to the manufacturer and consumer 
of linen goods who pay the duty? No 
intelligent person can give any but an 
affirmative answer to these interrogatories. 
The weight of evidence, of facts, of expe- 
rience here and abroad, all lead to the 
same conclusion, that a duty on scutched 
and hackled flax is not protection ; there 
is nothing in America to protect. 



APPENDIX. 



92 



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APPENDIX. 99 



TABLE V. 

Much is said about the inabihty of the 
American flax-grower to compete with the 
" pauper labor " of Europe. The follow- 
ing tables show the comparative cost of 
the production of flax in America and in 
Ireland. It will be seen that while the cost 
of labor is undoubtedly higher in America 
than in Ireland, yet this is to a great degree 
compensated for by the greater value of 
land in Ireland. In Holland, flax land 
readily brings a yearly rent of 300 to 350 
francs per hectare, equal to $25 to $30 per 
acre, a price for which good flax land can 
be bouorht outrig-ht in the West. In all 
manufacturing processes, America has an 
advantage in cheap fuel and water-power. 
(The first table is taken from the Report of 
the Tariff Commission, p. 995.) 



lOO 



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I02 



APPENDIX. 



TABLE VI. 

Tills table shows the acreai^e of flax in the flax-growing 
countries of the world, with tlie yield in fibre., the value 
of the same, and the average value per acre. 
Report of Tariff Commission^ p. ig6y. 







Quantity 






Country, i8So. 


Acres of 
Flax. 


ol Kibre 
produced, 
in tons. 


Value of same. 


Yield per 
Acre. 










About 


Russia . . . 


2,000,000 


250,000 


$50,000,000 


$25 00 


Germany . . 


329,362 


57,432 


1 1,500,000 


35 00 


Austria . . . 


245,090 


50,463 


10,900,000 


44 00 


Italy .... 


200,356 


22,953 


4,600,000 


23 00 


France . . . 


162,099 


36,969 


11,000,000 


68 00 


Ireland . . . 


157,534 


24,508 


7,500,000 


48 00 


ISel^ium . . . 


140,901 


29,580 


9,000.000 


64 00 


Holland . . . 


44,114 


7,Z86 


2,200,000 


50 00 


Sweden . . . 


33,639 


4,205 


850,000 


25 00 


E-ypt . . . 


15,000 


1,875 


375,000 


25 00 


Great Britain . 


8,985 


1,398 


300,000 


33 00 


Denmark . . 


6,292 


787 


158,000 


25 00 


Greece . . . 
Total Europe, 


957 
3,344,329 


119 


25,000 


26 00 


487,675 


$108,408,000 


United States, i88i. 






Iowa .... 


287,400 


■] 


Indiana . 




193,400 


No merchantable fibre pro- 


Kansas . 




160,900 


duced ; flax burned or 


Illinois . 




160,300 


otherwise destroyed. 


Minnesota 




95.200 


- Total quantity of flax 


Ohio . . 




80,600 


j-^^v/ raised on this area, 


Missouri 




55,000 


about 8,000,000 bushels, 


Nebraska 




50,000 


valued at $8,000,000.' 


Wisconsin 




44.500 


- 


Total Western 






Sta 


tes, 


1,127,300 









' The crop of flax seed for 1SS5 is stated to have been 12,000,000 bushels, 
valued at $13,500,000. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DD0m3aiit>4Q 



